Management of a computer network, even a relatively small one, can be a daunting task. A network manager or administrator is often responsible for ensuring that users' computers are operating properly in order to maximize productivity and minimize downtime. When a computer begins to function erratically, or ceases to function altogether, a user will often contact a system administrator for assistance. As explained in U.S. Pat. No. 7,593,936 (“the '936 patent”), there are significant labor costs associated with investigating, diagnosing, and resolving problems associated with individual computers on a computer network.
Further, as explained in U.S. Pat. No. 8,104,087 (“the '087 patent”), there may be any number of reasons why a given computer is not working properly, including missing or corrupted file(s) or registry key(s), “malware” (including viruses and the like), as well as user-error. Unfortunately, due to staff limitations, an information technology (IT) department of a typical organization often resorts to three common “brute force” methodologies, e.g., reinstalling backups, resetting applications and data to a baseline configuration, and/or re-imaging, wherein all software is re-installed, anew, on the computer instead of finding a root cause of a problem.
The foregoing “brute force” approaches to computer problem remediation, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, amount to blanket data replacement methodologies that are not responsive to fixing, e.g., a singular, specific problem on a given computer and, moreover, often result in many undesirable side effects for the computer user. For example, the user may experience loss of user customized settings, may have to work through a lengthy downtime period, or may wind up losing user data.
To resolve some of the aforementioned issues, a scanner may be employed to scan computer assets in order to detect configuration anomalies. However, one issue with a scanner is that it operates on a static scan scope, i.e., a static set of computer assets. If malware exists outside of the static scope, the malware may never be detected. Further, in some scanner implementations the scan scope is not encrypted and can be viewed by any user of the machine. Thus, someone with knowledge of the scan scope can design malware “around” the scan.
In light of the often critical importance of maintaining user data and avoiding unnecessary downtime, there is a need to provide a different approach to computer problem remediation.